1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to tickets issued to players for delayed or second play use in an interactive system, such as a television program. The system protects against possible re-use of non-winning tickets, thus eliminating any benefit from stockpiling tickets.
2. Description of the Related Art.
Lottery and similar type games using printed tickets generally fall into one of two categories. The first involves "on-line" or custom-generated tickets, the information of which includes a validity date and is printed on the ticket at the time of distribution.
The second category involves pre-printed tickets which cannot have validity dates printed on them because there are no adequate inventory control systems in place to allow sponsors of the game to know which tickets have been distributed and which are still in inventory and, most importantly, which tickets have been distributed within an applicable sales period. This problem of inadequate inventory control persists even when the tickets are provided with a unique identifying number.
The absence of a validity date presents the sponsor or Game Provider with a problem that the players have an unlimited pool of tickets with which to participate in an interactive "Second Play" game which the sponsor may choose to hold at some time after a first, possibly "instant", play. A second play would involve, for instance, the players' interaction with a television program, with the game sponsor broadcasting to the players game instructions and information which the players correlate with the tickets in their possession to determine if they are winners of the Second Play game. However, without adequate inventory control, all tickets distributed since the beginning of the promotion become eligible to win the Second Play game, creating an incentive for players to stockpile old tickets and a disincentive to acquire new tickets on an ongoing basis. Since the original purpose of the ticket was to induce a new sale, or induce repeat retail visits, adding a second play in this situation actually harms the overall promotion.
The prior art has failed to either recognize or address this problem of stockpiling tickets. U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,614 to Bachman et al. is for a game in which players scratch off appropriate markings on a ticket to designate answers to a puzzle presented by the game. Rather than chance, skill is involved in producing winners. The patent makes no mention of second play and is not concerned with the stockpiling of tickets.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,473 to Meloni et al. provides a scheme for exposing possible tampering with tickets which are imprinted at the point of sale. The point-of-sale printing process affords the ticket issuer control over the parameters of the game. However, second play is not addressed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,642 to Kamille discloses a game in which the players are also guided by their own skill rather than chance. The players sequentially expose clues on a ticket regarding the identification of a particular subject, with each succeeding exposure diminishing the value of the prize for which the ticket can be redeemed. A ticket is used only once.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,313 to Salvatore shows a ticket in which the player, in answering a question posed by the ticket, is permitted to select a limited number of answer regions provided on the ticket. The answer regions irreversibly reveal answers, and revealing more than one of the competing answers invalidates the ticket.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,737 to Fienberg is for a lottery game in which players use lottery tickets, each having a plurality of groups of game symbols to thereby provide the players with multiple plays. The players acquire two types of playing tickets having printed indicia which is correlated to designate winners of the game. No provisions for interactive play are made in the patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,221 to Sludikoff et al. is of the on-line custom-generated ticket-type lottery game. As such, the patent is not concerned with the problems attendant to the preprinted-type lottery games of this invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,052 to Behm et al. is for preprinted lottery tickets for a lottery game. No provisions are discussed for interactive second play and the patent therefore fails to address the concerns of the invention.